The barefoot engineers of Malawi – in pictures

Eight women from rural Malawi travelled to India to train as solar engineers. Now they are lighting the way for their communities, in a country where just 10% of households are powered by electricity

Photographs by Peter Caton/VSO

Main image:
Women review the electrical connection they have installed at a workshop they built at Chatsala primary school, Malawi

Mon 11 Feb 2019 02.00 EST

For Elinati Patison, a 48-year-old seamstress living in Chatsala, rural Lilongwe, the installation of solar lighting at home has helped her double her income. The lighting, which she helped install, has given her more control over her time by letting her work after the sun has set and focus on her family in the afternoons. She says: ‘In the past I struggled to find time for everything. I had to work farming [and] cook for the family … and so time for my business was limited’

Patison’s daughter also now works as a seamstress during the evenings. Their home is one of 100 in villages in rural Lilongwe that have had solar lights installed as part of VSO’s Solar Mamas rural electrification project. In Malawi, just 10% of homes have electricity. For Patison, the solar lighting means she can focus on growing her business. ‘Now, I can work as long as I like. I am happy working on my business, because I want to get somewhere in life. My ambition is to become well-known, so that I can get orders from big companies’

Emily Kamwendo, 62, and her husband Stefano Simion maintain a solar panel on roof of their house. Initially, Kamwendo’s husband was sceptical about her training with VSO’s Solar Mamas project, but now he says he appreciates her contribution to the community. A group of women from Malawi all spent six months at the
Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India, learning to build and wire electrical components

Emily Kamwendo repairs a solar-powered lantern. She was one of the eight who travelled to India to learn engineering. At first many neighbours doubted they would finish the course, which required them to leave their families behind, but all of them completed their training

Emily and her husband help their children to study by the light of a solar-powered lantern. She says the women who trained as solar engineers are now viewed differently by the community. None had completed school and most work farming cassava, tobacco and maize. But becoming solar engineers has transformed their prospects and those of their communities

‘Here in the village, people expect women to just be at home,’ says Emily, ‘cooking for the family, ensuring the kids are fed and wearing clean clothes. Now, people are starting to change their perceptions of us’

Edina Livitiko says as a child she was devastated when she had to drop out of school because her family could no longer afford the fees. Now 58, she and three other women who took part in the training have used their skills to electrify three classrooms at the local primary school in Kalolo

Lines Nguluwe makes doughnuts before sunrise using her new solar lighting system. In addition to selling the cakes during the day, she earns an income from letting people charge their phones at her home

Nguluwe’s mobile phone-charging business saves neighbours who lack electricity a costly visit to the nearest town. She and the other women also receive a small monthly salary from neighbours in return for maintaining their solar lighting systems

Dines Msampha, a 42-year-old single mother, says becoming a solar engineer has enabled her to double her income. In addition to her wage from maintaining neighbours’ solar lighting, she works longer hours on her doughnut-making business. She says: ‘Before, I didn’t believe a woman like me could build a house. I managed to build this house on my own without a husband. Now I know that I can do things on my own … I have worked hard and I am very proud of myself’

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